Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has launched a separate digital label: BCG Digital Ventures. With this label BCG is yet another global consulting firm that has created a separate practice to combine its consulting, design, and technology services aimed at digital transformations. It is striking that the management and dozens of advisors in BCG Venture’s top are former Booz Digital advisors. They have decided to leave Booz & Company since it was acquired by PwC last year.

Digital consultancy

Meanwhile the benefit of digital is familiar phenomenon in the market. Worldwide organizations are massively adopting concepts as digitalization, Big Data and Analytics to gain a competitive edge above their rivals. The growing demand for digital support has at the same time triggered the rise of a new and lucrative segment within the consultancy market: digital consulting. Large consulting firms have quickly anticipated on this trend by establishing separate Digital practices. Following from this, Deloitte launched Deloitte Digital in 2012. Last year, among others, Accenture, Booz & Company en Capco followed with respectively Accenture Digital, Booz Digital en Capco Digital.

Recently strategic consultant Boston Consulting Group also decided to enter the market under an independent label. The new entity - named 'BCG Ventures' - provides consulting, design, and technology services to help clients with strategic digital issues. Unlike its traditional strategy consulting offerings, the team also combines experts in other fields such as online, social media, innovation and even technologists. "In today's fast-changing environment, harnessing the power of digital technology is critical not only to stay competitive but also to change the game. To help clients with this task we have decided to bundle our own digital experience and expertise into BCG Digital Ventures" says Rich Lesser, international CEO at BCG.

BCG Ventures

The new BCG unit is headquartered in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles. On top of the former Booz Digital advisors it has already recruited both internally within BCG and massively from external players. The result: according to BCG already 300 dedicated employees based in San Francisco, Seattle and Boston.

The European market, including the Netherlands, is initially being run through London and the Asian market is covered by Sydney.

"Digital is changing established business models for the best every day. Our unique combination of capabilities and access to intellectual property enables our clients to achieve exponential digital growth and outsized returns" says Lesser. Its key focus will be on helping clients in three areas:

Booz Digital

BCG Ventures will be led by Jeff Schumacher, the former global Managing Director Booz Digital. After years in consulting, including spells at Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and McKinsey & Company, in 2011 Schumacher launched Axon Advisory, a specialist in digital consulting. Within a year the firm grew quickly and it was bought by Booz & Company. This company rebranded the unit into Booz Digital. Yet following the acquisition of Booz by PwC Advisory a large part of Booz Digital's management team decided they did not want to join PwC. The blending of pure strategy consulting with Big Four firms is notorious for its poor track record ('clash of cultures'), and under the command of Schumacher a large group of consultants has decided to exchange the new PwC-Booz combination for BCG Ventures.

Although neither Boston Consulting Group nor Booz have released any details on the exact numbers, an analysis from Consultancy.nl shows that all three initial founders of Booz Digital (Jeff Schumacher, Sean Collins and Simon MacGibbon) have switched companies. In addition, LinkedIn records reveal that at least